The present invention relates to a system and method of sending electronic mail, and more particularly, to a system and method for the sender of an electronic mail message to control inclusion of the sender's text at the recipient's side.
Electronic mail (hereinafter “email”) is widely used as a method of communication. People with email accounts, e.g. from an internet service provider, may easily compose and send an email message and attachments including text, graphics, audio, video, and/or multimedia components using a number of commercially available email management software applications. The message may be sent via a computer network, e.g. the Internet, to a designated recipient or recipients.
The message itself includes data identifying the sender of the message, thereby facilitating facile reply by the recipient. In fact, typical email management software may include a reply function that a recipient may use to automatically address a reply message to a sender. It has become a common practice for the recipient of an email message to include some or all of the sender's text when replying to the email. In fact, many email users either configure their software to do so automatically or use software that does so by default or by pre-configuration.
Email programs also may allow the original recipient of a message to forward the message to other parties. The forwarded message may include a message from the original recipient as well as the text generated by the original sender. Thus, as a message is passed to multiple recipients or between a recipient and a sender, the transmitted email message may progressively increase in size as each recipient adds to the message.